The Importance of Developing Culture: Toward Civic Solidarity and Community Engagement

• In Event: Exploration of Civic and Politics Education

Abstract

In this exploratory critical case study researchers examined how participants developed a sense of shared civic culture at an action civics summer camp. The camp, Youth Act (Pseudonym), supports students in the development of more active, participatory, and perpetual civic engagements. We found that providing spaces for the collective examination of social artifacts, developing community-minded solidarity, and offering structured guidance to overcome potential fears and obstacles of more active forms of citizenship supported students in developing a more actively minded, inclusive, and transformational culture.

Authors

• Nate Scholten, Baylor University

• Kevin Russel Magill, Baylor University

• Brooke Blevins, Baylor University

• Tori Smith, University of Alabama

• Karon Nicol LeCompte, Baylor University